Rainbow Connection
Table of Contents
RAINBOW CONNECTION
ALEXA MILNE
mlrpress
www.mlrpress.com
Mick Flanagan has kept himself hidden since his only lover died three years ago. He works at night, keeps to his routine, has impressive facial hair, and avoids contact with other people. Enter Ceri Llewellyn, with his constantly changing rainbow-coloured hair, who seems determined to talk to him. Gradually, Mick tells his story and begins to trust Ceri, but Mick has a past that contains more than just a dead lover. Can Ceri show him that he deserves to be loved and, above all else, help him find his true self?
Copyright Acknowledgement
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2015 by Alexa Milne
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Published by
MLR Press, LLC
3052 Gaines Waterport Rd.
Albion, NY 14411
Visit ManLoveRomance Press, LLC on the Internet:
www.mlrpress.com
Cover Art by Winterheart Design
Editing by Amanda Faris
ebook format
Issued 2015
This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. This eBook cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this eBook can be shared or reproduced without the express permission of the publisher.
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to two groups of people. I’d like to thank all the friends who helped and supported me on LiveJournal, especially Dawn, who has continued to support me so much. I’d also like to thank “The Whoonies,” my fellow Doctor Who fans, for their continuing friendship. You’ve no idea how much I appreciate you all.
CHAPTER 1
Mick pressed the button to let in the delivery man. For as long as he’d worked in this office block, twice a week, every week, at 6.30 in the morning, he’d watched the van arrive at the barrier via one of the several TV screens in front of him. In the past, he’d just kept a vague eye on the man, making sure that he followed his set route, before immediately returning to his book or whatever DVD box set he was watching. However, for the last month, he’d been glued to his screens, watching the new man as he filled up the various vending machines and water coolers scattered around the eight storey building. Mick stared at the screens, following the man’s every move, unable to tear himself away.
“Caught you!” Mick jumped a mile and nearly tipped out of his chair. He tried not to blush; luckily his beard covered most of his face, but he could feel the glow spreading across his cheeks. He glared at Ruby. “It’s my job to keep an eye on everyone in this building, and shouldn’t you be cleaning Reception by now?” Ruby flicked her duster in his direction and smiled one of those smiles that suggested she knew something he didn’t.
“Methinks he doth protest too much,” she replied, before turning and flouncing out of the cubby-hole he laughingly called his office.
After allowing enough time to make sure she wasn’t going to come back, he returned to the monitors. He found his target once more. The man moved like a panther down the long corridors, careful and silent, with an obvious strength from the way he carried the huge water bottles as if they weighed nothing. The thought made Mick shiver; he wasn’t really sure why this particular person should fascinate him so much. New people unnerved him. Ruby was the only one of the cleaners who still tried to get him to talk.
“I need to keep focused on the cameras,” he’d told them when they tried to involve him. “I don’t drink, so there’s no point in going to the pub.” For every attempt, he’d come up with an excuse not to accept.
“You need to get your head out of your books once in a while,” Ruby had said to him more than once. But his books helped him to escape by providing worlds so different from his own.
He saw Ruby and Mary, one of the other cleaners, talking to the man, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. Both peered up at the camera, and Mick looked away, as if he were some Peeping Tom. When he looked again, they’d disappeared. He anxiously checked all the screens.
“So this is where you are,” a soft voice said out of nowhere. Surprised, Mick nearly fell out of his seat again. After collecting himself, he turned toward the door and saw the voice came from the body he’d been watching for the last few weeks.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he managed to say. “This isn’t part of your route. You have to stick to your designated route, or it doesn’t work.”
“What doesn’t work?” the man asked.
“Me making sure that you do your job properly. I have to check you do the work and leave at the right time before I clock off. You’ll be late now, and I’ve got to be out of here at seven. I can’t be late waiting for you. It’s important to keep to routines!”
“I’m sorry,” the man said. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello because we haven’t met before. My name’s Ceri Llewellyn. Ruby said you’re called Mick.” He moved forward, and Mick pushed his chair back. Ceri stopped abruptly when Mick didn’t put his hand out in response.
“It’s okay, I don’t bite. I was only going to shake your hand.” Overwhelmed with the need to touch him, Mick screwed up enough courage to hold out his right hand.
“Yes, my name is Mick, Mick Flanagan. I’ve worked here for five years. Your hair’s green, and isn’t Ceri a girl’s name?”
§ § §
Ceri had no idea what to make of the man in front of him. He wasn’t even sure why he’d allowed Ruby to convince him to come and say hello. True, he was a bit lonely, but from what he’d been told, Mick certainly wasn’t his usual type. The hair struck Ceri first. Mick looked like a small bear. A bushy beard covered most of the lower part of his face. Hair poked from the top of his white shirt, and soft down covered his arms up to where his jacket sleeves were pushed back. Ceri stifled the urge to stroke his arm as he shook the proffered hand then answered the somewhat abrupt questions.
“My parents are Welsh, and Ceri is spelt C-E-R-I, which makes it a boy’s name. My hair is green because I like to keep changing it. Sometimes it’s green like now, or maybe orange, or purple, or blue. It’s the rainbow, you know,
red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and blue,
” he sang.
Mick shook his head. “Why would you want to dye your hair the colours of the rainbow?”
“I like to be different, I suppose,” Ceri explained. “And anyway it’s symbolic. You know, a rainbow representing all colours and all people, no matter what they are, black or white, young or old, gay or straight.”
“Oh, I see.” Ceri noted there was no other comment.
“As I said,” Mick continued. “I finish at seven, and you need to get your round done, so I can let you out before Fred arrives for the day shift.”
“D’you fancy getting breakfast?”
Now where the hell did that offer come from?
“What?”
“Breakfast. You know—food. You must eat. There’s a decent café just around the corner that does a good breakfast and the strongest tea. I’d say it’ll put hairs on your chest, but you seem to have enough already.”
The other man simply stared at him as if he’d spoken a different language, then started to pack his bag. “I can’t, I’ve got to go shopping this morning. I always go to the supermarket on Thursday before it gets busy,” Mick explained. “I can’t have breakfast with you. You’d better go, or you’re going to be late.”
“Okay, maybe not today,” Ceri said, “but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on you.” He gave Mick what he hoped was an encouraging grin before he turned and walked away, not at all sure about why he’d invited this strange man out.
§ § §
Mick watched Ceri getting into his van. Relieved and puzzled in equal measure, he pulled his jacket from the back of his chair and put it on. Now, at least, he could go home. He slung his bag over his shoulder.
“Everything okay?” His relief, Fred, asked, taking the empty seat.
“Yes,” Mick replied, succinctly.
“I’ll see you tonight then. I’m doing a double shift as Tom is off today. So you have a good day. Anything exciting planned?”
“Shopping.”
“Right—it’s Thursday. Well, have a good time shopping.”
As he walked around the store, Mick found himself thinking about the man who’d talked to him that morning. He didn’t get why Ceri should bother, and he still thought Ceri was a funny name, Welsh parentage or not. No one talked to him while he shopped, except Marie on the till. He always went to the same till and bought the same things, then had breakfast. He liked routine; he didn’t have to decide anything this way, but Ceri had unnerved him and reminded him of things he didn’t want to think about, things he couldn’t think about. Tears pricked the corner of his eyes and he glanced around, terrified someone would notice. At the till, Marie smiled at him.
“Morning Mick, let’s get this lot through, shall we? Same as ever I see. Here, have one of these caramel eggs on me. Live dangerously for once.”
“Thanks,” he muttered as he packed the rest of the food away, unsure of what else to say.
§ § §
Back at the depot, Ceri parked the van and changed into his leathers. He attached his skateboard to the side of his motorbike and roared off to the skate park. This morning, after a few basic errors, it was obvious his mind definitely wasn’t on the task in hand. He needed to grow up and accept the truth; he was never going to be a professional. He wasn’t really good enough. His thoughts strayed to the man he’d met that morning. He suspected there was a story behind Mick’s kind, gentle eyes; they were beautiful, like the sea around the Cornish coast on a sunny day. Maybe the rest of his face was just as striking, hidden under that beard. He had to face facts; he was lonely and bored. Things definitely hadn’t turned out as he expected when he’d first come to Cheltenham. When he bothered to venture out, all he seemed to find were cocky bastards who were full of themselves, and wanted him to be full of them too. Maybe this Mick needed a friend. Perhaps they could help each other.
CHAPTER 2
A few days later Ceri pressed the button to announce his presence. Without comment, Mick let him in then watched as he followed his usual route, filling up the machines and checking on the coolers. He tried to work out if his hair was a different shade. What was it he’d said, colours of the rainbow? Mick guessed this was some reference to being gay. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. It seemed so long ago now.
He remembered that day so well, his first pride march. He and Alfie had held hands in public and waved their rainbow flags. Alfie had been into all that gay rights stuff, gay pride and not hiding who or what you were. Blond, tall, and proverbially handsome, Alfie had appeared in Mick’s life like a guardian angel when he’d been injured, hit by a car while crossing the road, thus proving his mother’s view that the world outside their home was a dangerous place. Alfie, a paramedic had picked him up from the pavement and treated him but, surprisingly, Alfie had also turned up to visit him in hospital.
“I brought you some grapes and something to read. The nurses said no one had come to see you, and I didn’t like to think of you here all by yourself.”
How did he explain his mother? “Mum doesn’t like hospitals; she thinks they’re full of sick people and their germs.”
Alfie had smiled that beautiful smile and Mick’s heart missed several beats. After that, Alfie had visited every day.
“So it’s just you and her then,” Alfie stated the next day, taking the seat next to Mick’s bed. The warmth of Alfie’s hand around his made him feel safe. Maybe that was why he’d told Alfie everything.
“Yeah, I don’t know who my dad was. I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead. My mum said I was special—that she had wanted me, not some man. When I was old enough, she said she’d home-school me, but someone reported her and I had to go to school anyway. I remember on the first day some kids laughed at me because of my long hair. I cut it off and made a right mess. I mostly liked school, despite the bullying, and I tried to keep my head down as much as possible. My life was home and school. I made a friend, Sally, who took me under her wing and was kind to me, but Mum never allowed her to visit. No one came into the house.”